Witches, Moms and Sticks

This week we had a special guest: JR's Mom. She flew into town on Thursday evening and joined us for our adventure on Saturday. The first part of the adventure, a trip to the Willowdale, where we'll be getting married in November, was more exciting for Mom and Mumpus than it was for Grumpus. After doing a tour of the venue, we struck out into the woods.

We started by heading off of the trail and towards a bridge, which we scaled and followed into the woods. There was a fresh snow on the ground even though it's April, so we walked through the slush (or "muckus") according to JR. The first exciting thing was a tree that needed to be climbed, so JR decided to climb it. I'm still looking for adventurous things to do on these adventures, so I jumped at the chance to climb the tree. Alas, I only got to the first branch, and Mom and Allie weren't impressed, so we continued on.

One of the sad and interesting impacts of the massive amounts of snow this winter was the number of trees that cracked, lost branches or fell over and died. We passed one of these that looked as though part of it decayed, and the snow became too much and it fell over. We'd never seen a tree that was broken in such a jagged manner, so it was really cool to look at it.

We came to a clearing in the woods and instead of retracing our steps, Allie decided to lead up (walking stick in hand) through the clearing and back a new way. There was no path, and the route was unclear, but she led us with skill and expertise, and we eventually returned to the car after all three of us had our turn with the walking stick.

Despite the late season snow, it was a beautiful hike, and I'm glad we're getting married in this area.

On to Salem, MA- famous for its Witch Trials of 1692 - where we were greeted by the full MA Calvary (about 8 horses) and marine troops for their annual muster (review). We went to Salem hoping to browse some shops and visit the Peabody-Essex Museum, but sadly the shops seemed to exclusively sell witch and paranormal paraphernalia, so we stuck with the Museum. For those of you living in the Boston area: you can get FREE or heavily discounted tickets to local museums at your local library (if you book ahead)! The Museum was great, as usual, although quite crowded. The exhibit of Dutch masters was particularly crowded, with people all standing nose-to-paint with giant magnifying glasses provided by the curator, peering at the details. I (Allie) thought it was a great idea at first, but it quickly got old when we couldn't see any of the painting through the crowds with their glasses.

A quick jaunt around Harvard Square, where International Pillow Fight Day was in full gear, and then dinner at Bistro 5 a fantastic hidden gem in Medford, and we were all exhausted. I fell asleep first-- at an embarrassing 9pm I think. Those who know me well probably aren't surprised :)

Anyways, not the craziest of adventures this week, but we will pick it up next week! Meanwhile JR and I continue to be swamped with the last few weeks of school.